Nitesh Banta ’08, a social studies concentrator, agrees that the perception of the course is unfair.

“At this school there’s such a conservative bias associated with that course that people expect it,” he says. “But it’s not that big a deal.”

Some TFs do worry, however, that the broad leeway Feldstein had in lecturing and assigning articles allowed some of his political views to seep into the course.

To Gamble, the problem was one of an inadequate balance to the opinions Feldstein gave in lecture.

“When Marty gives his plan, you want to know the assumptions that are there,” says Gamble. “I’ve heard that complaint from students—‘We’ve seen the plan, but I don’t have the economics to critique it. So I’m left with the unsettling feeling of, I disagree but I’m not sure why.’”

But first-year TF Joseph M. Mazor says that Feldstein’s lectures drew a sharp distinction between fact and opinion. Mazor says the real problem, “if there is one,” lies in the readings.

“I think there’s room for improvement,” he says, in balancing conservative and liberal viewpoints in the selection of articles. “Mankiw’s aware of this,” Mazor adds.

A draft of the reading list for next fall does, indeed, show a vast overhaul of the articles assigned. The greatest change is in the numbers: the total of articles assigned will fall from 93 to 41. Of the original 93, only seven stayed on the reading list, and of the nine articles written by Feldstein, two remain.

Mazor proposes that Mankiw invite Marglin as a guest lecturer to provide ideological balance. Marglin did not respond to requests for comment, but Mankiw says he is “definitely someone we would consider.”

Nevertheless, TFs do not expect Mankiw to try consciously to make the course more liberal.

“He does realize he has a particular standing in the economic community as an economic conservative, and he’s comfortable with that, and students have to realize that,” says Jodi Beggs, who will start her second year as a TF in the fall. “At one point he basically said, ‘If they don’t like Marty, they’re not going to like me.’”

ONE COURSE, INDIVISIBLE

With Expository Writing and a language requirement freshman year, Gamble almost didn’t take Ec 10. It took a great interest in economics to convince him to commit to the full-year course.

“The problem that can’t be underestimated,” Gamble says, is the number of students who don’t take Ec 10 because it requires a full-year commitment—microeconomics in the fall semester followed by macroeconomics in the spring.

“You don’t want students to take macro because they have to, but because they want to come back,” Gamble adds.